The cost of a wedding in Kyrgyzstan.

Soon after her announcement, I received an e-mail invitation to a "Barbecue Wedding." What? No official wedding invitations? The dress is casual, the invitation said. Casual? I read on. Please bring a dish? No filet mignon, or stuffed chicken?

Nobody is forcing you to go to weddings.

In the movies, I think they call this being a "kept" man or woman. In less sophisticated terms, they call this having a sugar mama or daddy. In response, I said, "Well, you are very kind," and left it at that.

How much should you have to spend on a wedding gift?

Apparently, "250,000 weddings are called off every year," which disrupts the Wedding Industrial Complex because it leaves a bunch of venue and vendors hanging. But this Bridal Brokerage firm will buy your cancelled wedding so you can recover some of your deposits back, and resells it to couples who are looking to have "beautiful, pre-planned weddings at a fraction of the price."

What we pay to watch our friends get married.

We got married in a judge's private office on a Friday afternoon. Besides my husband, the only other people present were my sister, and three close friends. I told my parents a week before we got married what our plans were, and they asked, "Why so quickly? What's the hurry?" It wasn't quick or sudden for us; we'd been talking about getting married for months. The major impediment we kept circling around was that we didn't want a wedding.

I have one more wedding to attend this year. It's going to be in Texas next week, and will be amazing.

City Hall is probably the most cost-effective way to get married, but you can also have a big party, and not spend a ton of money.